Differences from EAS

React Native Deploy aims to be a drop-in for the build and submit half of EAS. Where it behaves differently, it does so on purpose and says so at the command line.

Held to by tests

Claim	How it is tested
Your eas.json resolves identically	Differential tests run every fixture through this implementation and the real @expo/eas-json, asserting the resolved profiles and the rejections match
Commands and flags are the same	A contract test reads eas-cli's oclif.manifest.json and checks every command id, alias, flag, short char, option list and default
The CLI and the runner agree	A workflow contract test checks every plan output the workflow reads is one the CLI sends, and pins signing, failure handling and install publishing

Deliberate differences

EAS	React Native Deploy	Why
Expo account, eas login with SSO/browser	GitHub token	GitHub runs the builds
The eas command	The rnd command	Same subcommands and flags, so a script only needs eas swapped for rnd
Builds on Expo's machines	Builds on GitHub-hosted runners in your repo	The point of the project
eas build --local	Refused	Use a runner, or npx expo run:ios
Credentials stored and generated on Expo's servers	Repository secrets; rnd credentials reports, it does not create yet	See Credentials
eas build:version:set, remote version source	Refused; versions live in app.json	There is no version server
eas submit --url	Refused	asc uploads local files; download first
Android eas submit	Not wired up yet	Needs a Google Play service account, not asc. Upload the .aab to Play Console directly
eas update, branch, channel, env, secret, webhook, workflow:run, deploy, metadata	Recognised and refused with the alternative	They are Expo-hosted services. See the list
Internal distribution links on expo.dev	Install pages on your own Cloudflare Worker	See Internal distribution

Not there yet

These are known gaps rather than design decisions:

• autoIncrement is read from the profile but not applied on the runner: every build uses the buildNumber / versionCode in app.json. App Store Connect rejects a second upload with the same build number, so bump it yourself before each store build for now.
• rnd build --auto-submit, --auto-submit-with-profile and --what-to-test are accepted but do nothing. Run rnd build:download and rnd submit --path … after the build.
• Credential setup has no wizard; the manual steps are in Credentials.
• App extensions (widgets, notification services) are not signed: one provisioning profile per build, applied to the app target.
• rnd device:create prints the asc command to run rather than registering the device.